Note: According to the ejection seat inscription that must be A-10C 80-0210, currently combat-deployed with the 354th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Wing (ACC), Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, to the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Note the two water bottles behind the windshield.

12/19/2012 - BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Lt. Col. James "Kil" Roy III, 455th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron director of operations, has spent a long time in the air.

A veteran of 250+ missions, Roy recently achieved 1,000 combat flying hours, all in the A-10 Thunderbolt II and all as a result of missions flown from here.

"In comparing this to a 40 hour a week job; essentially, I've worked six months in the air over Afghanistan," said Roy, deployed here from Moody Air Force Base, Ga.

Having grown up with a father and grandfather who were both career Army officers, Roy said the only things he wanted to do was be in the military and fly planes.

"I was accepted to West Point and ... the Air Force Academy, and the statistics were 70 percent of Academy graduates went to pilot training [versus] 30 percent of West Point graduates," Roy said. "So I went with the numbers."

Roy would graduate from the Air Force Academy, but ironically not pilot-qualified, being assigned instead as a weapons system officer for the B-1B Lancer. Determined to become a pilot, Roy sought out civilian air credentials.

"I earned my commercial pilot's license, instrument rating and certified flight instructor license... to make my resume look as good as possible," Roy recalled, "and then worked really hard at my job to be the best WSO I could be in the squadron so I could get an exception to policy [letter] for vision."

Roy was selected for cross-training to the A-10 in 2001. While he said he missed the community of the Lancer mission, he considers his current mission very significant. "Close air support is very gratifying," Roy said. "You get to directly help somebody on the ground and you directly affect the battle."

Roy's leadership and co-workers share his enthusiasm.

"It is a very rare accomplishment to hit 1,000 hours in a career, period, let alone in one [Area of Responsibility] and on the same platform," said Lt. Col. Marty Garrett, 455th EOSS commander, who added that a pilot doesn't reach numbers like that by accident.

"It takes someone who wants to get into the fight and someone who seeks out every opportunity to support the guys on the ground."

Dedicated in Love

This blog is dedicated to Marina Naumann, my latest female partner who died after incurable pancreas cancer on June 17, 2010, just only a half year after diagnosis. Marina was the second true wife in my life, and she always supported my long-year enthusiastic research work on the Hog, especially since the beginning of operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Rest in peace, Marina.